Karzai weighs up key security deal for brother

Dion Nissenbaum, Kandahar

AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai is considering a deal that could give his controversial half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, more influence over a lucrative security business.

As American strategists prepare to extend government control in Kandahar, President Karzai is weighing up whether to give a key ally of his half-brother the power to run newly created Kandahar Security. The company protects supply convoys for US-led forces in southern Afghanistan.

If approved quickly, the deal could bring the company millions of dollars in contracts in coming months as the US sends thousands of extra troops to southern Afghanistan.

Top Afghan officials say they are backing the deal to gain control over rival security companies that sometimes engaged in violent clashes over multimillion-dollar contracts.

Mr Karzai's critics view the security consolidation as a covert effort to solidify his half-brother's already unrivalled hold on power in Kandahar.

His grip on the city is widely seen as a serious obstacle to good local governance, critical to the success of the US-led counter-insurgency operation.

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''The concern seems to me to be that he may be creating a security force which responds to him and subverts the formal institutions and formal security forces of the Afghan state,'' said Carl Forsberg, a research analyst and Afghan specialist at the Institute for the Study of War, in Washington.

In the past eight years, Afghan security companies have proved formidable rivals to Western companies. There are about 50 registered security firms - Afghan and international - in the country.

The pending proposal from the Afghan Interior Ministry calls for consolidation of about two dozen small, lightly regulated security companies under the command of a Kandahar-based mogul known simply as Ruhullah.

Ruhullah said the deal would allow him to create a 2500-person security firm to protect NATO supply convoys. This would make his company by far the biggest of its kind in Afghanistan.

Although the Interior Ministry said the proposal would allow the new Kandahar Security to hire only 500 people immediately, it would still put Ruhullah in charge of a significant armed force in Kandahar.

Ahmed Wali Karzai played down any power he might have over the new security company. He said he would play no direct role in running it, but would help it drum up business. ''I will play my role and use my influence to organise them,'' said Ahmed Wali Karzai, who is head of the Kandahar provincial council. ''These people need some support.''

Some security contractors portrayed the deal as an offer they couldn't refuse.

''The main profits will go to a few people,'' said one Kandahar security contractor who asked that his identity be kept secret out of fear of retaliation by Ahmed Wali Karzai. ''Anyone who has good relations with Ahmed Wali will get the good contracts.''